Gardenia opens new P1-B bread plant in Laguna

MANILA, Philippines - Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc. is expanding its local production capacity to cater to the continuous growth of the bread industry with the inauguration of its P1-billion plant in Laguna.

Gardenia on Wednesday night opened its sixth bread plant capable of producing 150,000 loaves per day or a 50 percent increase from its current production capacity.

 “The opening of this plant will further enhance Gardenia’s production capacity, and fast-track its growth momentum in the Philippines. It puts Gardenia in the forefront of the bread and bakery industry, and enables the company to pursue new heights of growth and excellence,” QAF Ltd. group managing director Tan Kong King said.

The QAF Group of Singapore is the parent company of Gardenia Philippines.

The new plant is expected to serve bread demand of consumers of the entire Luzon market from Cagayan Valley to Sorsogon province.

With the additional capacity from the new plant, Gardenia Philippines president and general manager Simplicio Umali said the company is expected to meet the bread market demand of Filipino consumers in the Luzon area in the next few years.

 “Gardenia’s newest plant combines the latest available technologies and equipment in the field of bread baking from all over the world. This ensures consumers that they will only receive best quality Gardenia products made from a state-of-the-art, sophisticated baking facility. Sufficient bread supplies to our retail trade partners are now ensured,” Umali said.

According to Umali, the total bread market in the Philippines has an estimated value of P18 billion divided into two categories - the packaged and unpackaged segments.

The packaged, branded segment amounts to P9 billion, where Gardenia holds about 50 percent; while the unpackaged bread segment also has an estimated value of P9 billion.

Umali said despite the continuous growth of the country’s bread industry, the Philippines still has a much lower bread consumption compared to neighboring countries Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

 “We will move fast forward in reaching a wider scope of our market as we increase bread supplies. With more bread supply, we will need to expand and intensify our bread distribution coverage, and make Gardenia products more easily accessible and available to consumers in more barangays that are currently not reached by our distribution network. This will also support the expansion plans of supermarkets and convenience store chains,” Umali said.